Having only had the vehicle for eight weeks and 2,500 miles, and my only contact with the dealer being a chat with the transporter driver who delivered it, I obviously can't give meaningful feedback for reliability or service. I hope however that someone may find the first impressions of a non-journalist useful.

I'll get the bad stuff out of the way first. I should first point out that I have the 17” Houston rims, not the 19” wheels that most press cars seem to have been equipped with.

The Bad.
The suspension is harsh. Not as bad as I've experienced in some VW/Audi/Seat products, and the seats are good enough to isolate the occupants from most of it. The way it crashes over potholes and speed humps does seem strangely at odds with the generally smooth, sophisticated feel of the machine though, as does the tyre rumble that comes through from any but the most perfect surfaces.

At 1,871mm (6' 2” in old money) plus mirrors, it's seriously wide. Although it doesn't feel that huge in general driving, it can be quite difficult to find a space in a car park that is big enough to be able to exit the vehicle. In mitigation I suspect this is common to many new cars, side impact regulations?

The Indifferent.
“It goes round corners as if it were on rails” used to be the highest praise a journo could give a car, and I can't think of a better description of what my DS5 does. I haven't experienced the skittishness described in some road tests, or any other bad behaviour, just no appreciable behaviour at all.

The Good.
Everything not mentioned above really, but most notable is the obvious high quality of materials and construction, inside and out, even extending into places you wouldn't normally look, like inside the front armrest cubbyhole, the door shuts, or under the boot floor.

Fuel economy. Over my daily 40 mile commute - around 40% urban and 60% twisty, hilly A-roads – my worst average for a week has been 46 mpg but most have been around 49. On a 150 mile round trip, which was 90% motorway, I got 54.9. These figures are probably way short of the official ones, but as my previous – 2 litre, petrol engined – car could only achieve 23 mpg on my commute, to me they look pretty good.

The, much maligned, 6-speed EGS. For the first couple of days it seemed to change jerkily and just when I least expected it. Since then either I've learnt it, or it's learnt me. Whatever, I have come to appreciate the way it manages to be in the right gear far more of the time than the full auto box on my old car, but without pouring my money down the drain through an inefficient torque converter.